What to do with old dance costumes

Dancers grow and wearing through clothes is inevitable! The stress that these garments get put under when dancing can be tough, and even the highest quality dancewear has it's limits. In this post, we’ve listed some ideas of what you can do with any old dance items you end up with.

Second Hand Dancewear

The Sibling Dance

Hand-me-downs have been a parent trick since the dawn of time. Gently used bodywear can be handed down to younger siblings or even friends who are in need of more dancewear. Items like shorts, skirts, and legwarmers are especially easy to pass along since they do not get worn down as easily as something like shoes or bodysuits.

Used Dancewear Programs

Some studios have used dancewear programs that give away gently used dancewear to dancers indeed or consign used dancewear for other dancers to buy. If your studio doesn't have a program like you may even want to consider starting one for them!

Consignment, Secondhand & Thrift Stores

Some consignment shops take gently used dancewear. Do a simple Google search for consignment & secondhand shops in your area and give them a call before heading in with your dancewear. 

Donating to local thrifts stores like Goodwill is another good option for getting rid of old clothes without throwing them away.

Re-purpose Dance Items

Halloween Costumes & Dress-up

Using old dance clothes for costume parties, Halloween, or just for play can be a great way to get value out of the items you’ve purchased. Creating a dress up chest with old dancerwear for younger siblings is a great way to ensure family fun and encourage them to consider dancing as well. 

Winter Wonder Layers

Worn down tights and bodysuits that are a bit too rough for the stage can be used under winter cloths to provide an extra layer of warmth while your little dancer plays in the snow. 

Travel Bags, Hobby Cases & Toy Totes

Sometimes dancers stop dancing. It's sad but it's true. When they do you can find yourself with an array of items which now seem useless. Some larger scale items like rolling dance bags or makeup cases work well as travel bags. Makeup cases can also become good hobby cases or toy containers.  

To date, over 40,000 DANCERS have been helped by Donate2Dance.

CoVid Update:

Donate2Dance still continues to ship boxes
of donations to dancers and dance schools in need
even during the COVID crisis.

Want to Donate, Receive Donations, Partner with us on your community service project or mitzvah project? 

*Video/Dancers courtesy of ShufflesNYC

DONATE 2 DANCE

We believe that every child deserves the chance to dance. With that in mind, we created Donate2Dance in February 2018 with the mission of collecting gently worn dance shoes, costumes and dancewear to donate to dance schools in need across the country. So far, we have partnered with over 250 dance programs that serve inner city children and those with special needs. We started with a pile of our own shoes and costumes and have watched dancers from all over the world from New York City to New Jersey to Minnesota and Ghana, Africa get into the spirit! To date, we have donated to over 40,000 dancers around the world and use our grant and GoFundMe money to pay for shipping when we can. Donors, dance manufactures and dance stores ship donations directly to us or we connect them locally with a dance program in need in their respective city or town and that’s when the #DancersHelpingDancers donation magic happens!

Capezio, Bloch, PrimaSoft, BodyWrappers, Gaynor Mindon, Zelle, AK Dancewear, Terez, LeSportSac and Norwegian Cruiseline and many, many others have been extremely generous and donate to us all the time!

donate 2 dance helps dancers in need get on their feet with shoes, costumes

A local charity called Donate 2 Dance was born when a mom in Manhattan told her two daughters to clean out their closets.

By Sandy Kenyon NEW YORK CITY (WABC) December 16, 2021 

The donate 2 dance sisters

They have helped over 10,000 dancers all around the world get costumes and dance shoes. Now they tell us how a happy accident inspired them to tap it forward.

WNBC-NY (NBC) October 29, 2020 

Teen Dancers Create Nonprofit That Donates Dance Clothes to Dancers Around the World

"It is the greatest feeling knowing that, every day, we are helping others."

By Ava And Sophia Paley December 17, 2019 

“ New Yorkers of The Week”

Donate 2 Dance sisters share their love of dance with those in need

This Best Friend Friday, dancing sisters Ava and Sophia Paley, ages 14 and 12, open up about starting Donate 2 Dance, an organization that collects attire for young dancers in need. Plus, Tiler Peck, a New York City Ballet dancer, stops by with a surprise.

Today Show May 3, 2019 

As seen on

Two Dance-Obsessed N.Y.C. Sisters Launch Charity to Help Aspiring Dancers in Need

Ava and Sophia Paley of the Upper West Side are "tapping it forward" to donate gently-used dance gear to those who need it most

By Sharon Kanter 

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ABOUT US

“Mom, my dance shoes are too tight, again!”
“Again?”
“Again!”
“And while we’re at it, let me guess, your dancewear too?”
“Yes, mom!”

And off to Capezio we went. Again. We are fortunate. Fortunate that we are sisters who were introduced to dance when we were each five years old. Fortunate that we can take lessons with really great teachers who have taught us to love dance. And fortunate that we could replace our shoes, dancewear and costumes when we needed to. And we needed to A LOT. Because we started to grow, and we kept on growing. And every time we grew, the pile of dance shoes in our closet grew too. And grew. What, we wondered, should we do with all of these shoes that still had a lot of dance left in them? We figured since we love dance so much, there must be other kids out there who love dance and who could probably use shoes and dancewear. So we created Donate2Dance with the idea of donating dance shoes, dancewear and costumes to underserved communities and dancers in need. We believe that this is really about dancers helping dancers! We brought the idea to our dance school, Shuffles Broadway Tap and Musical Theater School, and they partnered with us immediately and we joined forces with their “Shuffle It Forward” philanthropic initiative. After setting up our oversized, pink donation bins at Shuffles….we waited. And before we knew it, a week later our bin was overflowing with shoes and costumes! Since we started Donate2Dance, in Feb 2018, we have helped over 20,000 dancers around the world. We ship to over 250 dance schools in need and it is the best feeling knowing that there are dancers out there who now have shoes, dancewear and costumes! We truly believe that every child deserves the chance to dance! #DancersHelpingDancers

AVA AND SOPHIA PALEY

Thank you TO All OUR DONORS

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Thank you TO All OUR PARTNERS

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